While the big lottery drawing will occur on May 17th, today tiebreakers were settled. The Mavs (aka Celtics) won their coin flip and will pick 16th instead of 17th. The Celtics weren't as lucky with their own pick as the ping pong balls gave the Hawks pick #21 and the Hornets pick #22. The Celtics then came in at #23 with the last of the 4 way tie, the Heat, picking #24.

So if you're keeping score at home, by beating the Heat in Game 82, the Celtics earned a tougher first round opponent, line-up to face the Cavs in the 2nd round, and move back a couple spots in the draft. I expect Danny to try and package picks 16 and 23 to move up into the late lottery. Ainge has a lot of options with his abundance of picks in this draft (Nets pick, 16, 23, 31, 35, 45, 53, 58). He can combine some to move up, draft some foreign players as stash picks, or trade them for future picks to retain draft assets. You might see a combination of the three.

Again the big drawing will be in 4 and a half weeks when we find out where in the top 6 the Nets pick lands.